



PRRSENTI'/) BY 



:Ba. 



(JDfCemoirs of the War of'6l 



COL. CHARLES),R. LOWELL 



SMemoirs of the War of '6i 



COLONEL 
CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 

FRIENDS AND COUSINS 



' XAJjvuXn 






BOSTON 
Press of Geo. H. Ellis Co. 

1920 



1^ 






DEDICATION 

To the young men of 1917 who so nobly risked 
their hopes of future usefulness, their health, 
their lives, to stand side by side with our Allies 
against tyranny and injustice abroad; to those 
who fell, and to those who survived to whom 
the future of our own country is now intrusted, 
— this collection of brief memoirs of the young 
men of 1861 is dedicated. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Foreword, with Sketch of Governor Andrew . vii 

Charles Russell Lowell i 

Henry Lee Higginson 13 

Stephen George Perkins 19 

James Savage, Jr 22 

Wilder Dwight 27 

Robert Gould Shaw 32 

Henry Sturgis Russell 38 

James Jackson Higginson 42 

James Jackson Lowell 45 

William Lowell Putnam 49 

Cabot Jackson Russel 54 

Samuel Storrow 57 

Sumner Paine 62 




JOHN ALBION ANDREW 

Governor of Massachusetts 



FOREWORD FROM A CONTEMPORARY 
OF A GROUP OF SOLDIERS OF THE 
WAR OF 1861 

Early in the time of our Civil War a set of 
photographs, of which these are mainly dupli- 
cates, was sent over to some English friends 
who had recently been guests here. Placed on 
their drawing-room table in London, the por- 
traits helped to convince their friends that our 
army was not made up of "mere mercenaries." 

To accompany the photographs, short me- 
moirs have been compiled, from the Harvard 
Memorial Biographies and from other sources, 
of Colonel Charles Russell Lowell and some of 
his friends and cousins, with Governor John A. 
Andrew at their head. 

There were other friends and cousins whose 
services in the war and since the war equally 
deserve recognition, but whose photographs 
were not at hand when the original collection 
was made: the cousins are Francis L. Lee, 
Charles Jackson Paine, Jr., William Gushing 
Paine, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Charles 
Storrow, Jr., Francis Lee Higginson, Warren 
Dutton Russell, Frank Lowell Dutton Russell, 
John Pearce Penhallow. 



vill FOREWORD 

A few facts about the times into which these 
men were born are worth noting: — 

Major Henry Lee Higginson in his address 
on Colonel Robert G. Shaw delivered in 
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, Cam- 
bridge, on May 30, 1897, said in part: — 

"To-day I wish to talk to you of the Fifty- 
fourth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer In- 
fantry, colored, commanded by Colonel Robert 
Shaw; and of slavery, which, as a deadly poison 
to our nation, they strove to remove. Any 
word of mine which may seem harsh to our 
brothers of the South has no such meaning or 
feeling. The sin of slavery was national and 
caused the sin of disunion. Together we wiped 
out with our blood these two great wrongs, 
long ago, and we also wiped out all unkind 
feeling." 

The '^nationaV^ responsibility for the con- 
tinuation of slavery did not arise simply from 
the fact that in the North slavery had existed 
in Colonial days, for in the first census of 1790, 
made up by Jonathan Jackson whom Wash- 
ington had appointed United States Marshal 
for the District of Massachusetts, then includ- 
ing Maine, there was recorded under the head- 
ing ''Number of Slaves" in that District the 
word "non<f." Meantime the foreign slave 
trade had been made illegal. 



FOREWORD ix 

There had been movements toward a similar 
policy in the South, when, through Northern 
enterprise, cotton factories were set up along 
our many rivers, the first spinners and weavers 
being girls from the neighboring farms, and 
stockholders, many of whom were persons of 
moderate means, who had invested their hard- 
earned savings, intrusting them to the enter- 
prising manufacturers for the new cotton mills. 
The Irish famine and other conditions in Europe 
soon increased the tide of immigration, which 
later was welcomed and encouraged because 
it brought not only some highly skilled workers 
but also persons who were unskilled but could 
be made available for working at parts of this 
new machinery. 

The question then arose, how could the in- 
creasing demand for cheap cotton be met? The 
rivers and canals might cause the busy wheels 
to turn, and cheap labor might be hired to work 
at them; but if the slave trade were to cease, 
and if Virginia should cease to raise slaves to 
be sold at the more Southern markets for labor 
where cotton raising would thrive and cheap 
labor was always in demand, who would there 
be to plant and gather the cotton or to serve 
the white owners of the crops ? 

Naturally these considerations may have 
tended to confirm the reluctance of the North 



X FOREWORD 

to break with the South, and perhaps tended 
also to bolster up the doctrine of State Rights. 
In 1848 the Missouri Compromise was repealed, 
and the extension of slavery into the terri- 
tories was proposed. In 1850 the Fugitive 
Slave Law was enacted and the Supreme Court 
had declared that by our Constitution "negroes 
were not citizens of the United States," "had 
never had any rights which the white man was 
bound to respect," "might justly and lawfully 
be enslaved for their own good." Meantime 
Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," founded 
upon conditions which had come to that writer's 
knowledge during her residence in the South, 
was published March 20, 1852, and translated 
into the languages of dwellers in all parts of 
the civilized world. In Great Britain, slavery 
had been abolished in 1807. 

As late as 1850 some of the most public- 
spirited Northerners would gladly have nego- 
tiated payment by the United States of five or 
ten million dollars per year to free the slaves, 
but they dreaded a rising of the slaves and were 
encouraged by Southerners and by Southern 
sympathizers in this dread of that which never 
happened, not even during the Civil War, so 
loyal were the colored people in the absence of 
their white masters. 

Under this United States Fugitive Slave Bill 



FOREWORD xi 

slaves were arrested, tried, even here in Boston, 
and sent back to their owners; the last and 
bitterest case being that of Anthony Burns, 
June 2, 1854. 

Just at that critical period, John Albion 
Andrew, a young law student from Maine, 
graduate of Bowdoin College in 1837, then 
entering in November as a student in the ofHce 
of Fuller & Washburn of Boston, admitted to 
the bar in 1840, friend of Peleg Chandler, had 
returned to his old master's office as junior 
partner, and had later formed partnership with 
Theophilus P. Chandler and with him had 
opened an office at No. 4 Court Street. 

In 1846, upon the rendition of a fugitive slave 
who had escaped in the hold of a vessel and had 
been left by the captain on an island in the 
harbor, had escaped to South Boston, was re- 
captured and returned to his owner in New 
Orleans, John Andrew, at a preliminary meet- 
ing with Dr. Samuel G. Howe at the house of 
Dr. Henry IngersoU Bowditch, September 24, 
1846, was chosen secretary of a committee and 
was intrusted with the work of collecting testi- 
mony in the case and presenting it to the grand 
jury, but this evidence was pronounced insuf- 
ficient. At the Faneuil Hall meeting, Febru- 
ary 24, 1846, where John Quincy Adams pre- 
sided, Andrew read the resolutions, and a 



xli FOREWORD 

Vigilance Committee of forty members was 
appointed, "Andrew's purpose being to abide 
by the law, but to wring from it the utmost 
protection for any person on Massachusetts soil 
whose liberty was called in question under the 
laws of the United States." 

The history of politics after this crisis is well 
known. It is interesting to note that when 
Lincoln's nomination was assured, and Andrew, 
as a member of the Committee, had been ap- 
pointed to inform Lincoln of his nomination, 
Andrew "saw in a flash that here was a man 
who was master of himself." "For the first 
time," he says, "they [the members of the 
Committee] understood that Abraham Lincoln, 
whom they had supposed to be little more than 
a loquacious and clever state politician, had 
force, insight, conscience." 

"As the campaign for Governor of Massa- 
chusetts went on in 1858 to i860, people came 
to recognize the two qualities, the cool head and 
the warm heart, which were so remarkably 
united in John A. Andrew, and to feel that he 
could be trusted as their governor." On the 
5th of January, 1861, the Legislature met in 
convention. The inauguration took place in 
due form, and Andrew read his address. 

One of Andrew's first cares, when John M. 
Forbes appeared as his counsellor, was the selec- 



FOREWORD xiii 

tion of four aides to constitute his personal 
staff, — Horace Binney Sargent, Henry Lee, Jr., 
Harrison Ritchie, and John M. Wetherell of 
Worcester. 

Meantime a Southern Convention, at which 
eight States were represented, had met at 
Vicksburg and had passed resolutions in favor 
of reopening the slave trade. In October came 
John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry and the 
hanging of Brown and his associates. On April 
1 2th the seceders opened fire on Fort Sumter; 
April 15th the President called out seventy-five 
thousand troops; April 19th the Massachusetts 
Sixth was fired upon on its way South, and 
Massachusetts men lay dead in Baltimore. 

One of the Governor's Staif, Henry Lee, Jr., 
writing in later years, notes: "At Fort Win- 
throp there were no guns; Fort Independence 
twenty guns &c. At last, after six weeks 
of sickening suspense, on the 15th of April, 
came the appalling summons for twenty com- 
panies of Infantry; early on Friday four regi- 
ments reported in a driving storm of sleet and 
rain; from that hour till the dawn of Sunday, 
April 2 1 St, we all had to work night and day 
as armorers." "Behind every great movement 
stands the man. The whole community, from 
that time forth, owned Governor Andrew for 
their leader." 



xiv FOREWORD 

Colonel Henry Lee, in his personal reminis- 
cences of Governor Andrew, from January, 
1861, till November, 1867, wrote: "Governor 
Andrew was one of the very few who saw 
clearly through this day's business." "The 
grave closes over most men as the waves close 
over the wake of a passing ship. The places 
that have known them know them no more, 
but Governor Andrew has been and will con- 
tinue to be sadly missed." "He leaves what is 
better than great riches, a name which will 
never be spoken save with admiration, gratitude 
and honor." 

Such was the Governor who commissioned 
these young men. 

We shall read from the following brief ex- 
tracts, mainly drawn from biographies written 
half a century ago, that some of these men 
risked their lives first of all to save the Union, 
while others had the freedom of the slaves most 
at heart. We can never make good the work 
which together they and the rest made possible 
for later generations to carry into effect, unless, 
side by side with our other civic and patriotic 
duties, we open the way to the colored people 
to become not only good soldiers but also good 
citizens, by removing, one by one, the barriers 
which have deliberately been made to block 
their efforts in many directions, in the North 



FOREWORD XV 

as well as in the South. The colored race, to 
which the war of i86i brought freedom from 
slavery, is the only race against which a whole- 
sale discrimination, both legal and illegal, is 
still practised. This occurs regardless of the 
fact that many thousands of the colored people 
have achieved success not only in the ministry 
and in the army, but also in the arts and 
sciences, in medicine, law, and literature, as, 
for instance, our highly valued head-master of 
a large public school, our student who was 
elected into the Phi Beta Kappa a year before 
graduating with honors from Radcliife College 
and is now a successful teacher. 

Graduates of Harvard, Yale, Fisk, Atlanta, 
and other universities, as well as of Hampton 
and Tuskegee, and other industrial schools, are 
taking part in the world's work and passing the 
requirements for civil service in government 
departments, making good records in many 
other directions also. 

This wholesale race-discrimination is as short- 
sighted as it is cowardly. To deprive a weaker 
race of almost vital opportunities is essentially 
a cowardly performance. It has well been said, 
"Perhaps the most important single factor in 
the development of the South is its negro labor; 
it is more to it, if viewed aright, than its gold, 
iron, and coal mines; if properly treated and 



xvi FOREWORD 

trained it will mean wealth and greatness to 
that section." To quote from a conservative 
paper, the Washington Post, published thirty- 
five years after their emancipation from slavery: 
'*We hold, as between the ignorant of the two 
races, the negro is preferable. . . . The negroes 
are conservative, they are good citizens, they 
do not consort with anarchists, they cannot be 
made the tools and agents of incendiaries; they 
constitute the solid, worthy, estimable yeo- 
manry of the South." 

After the recent race riot in Chicago the 
statement was quoted from some of the white 
aggressors that it was not so much because of 
their color as because most of them were not 
union men that the colored men were mal- 
treated. Meantime many of the labor unions 
are now opening their doors to colored workmen. 

These facts in themselves give proof that our 
heroes of 1861 did not give their lives in vain 
when, in preventing the extension of slavery 
into the territories, they set free that ^'stolen 
race" and made them American citizens, with 
the rights and mutual obligations pertaining 
to citizenship in our free nation. 

Elizabeth C. Putnam, 

104 Marlborough Street, 

Boston, Aiassachusetts. 



.;>^";-: <-vxi,>/j0^iw.'x<.ti i i 




CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 

Captain of Cavalry, May 14, 1861. Colonel 
of Second Massachusetts Cavalry, April 15, 
1863. Died at Middletown, Virginia, October 
20, 1864, of wounds received at Cedar Creek 
on October 19th. 

Charles Russell Lowell, Jr., was born in 
Boston, January 2, 1835. When only thirteen 
years of age he went from the Boston Latin 
School into the English High School; in 1850 
entered Harvard College, took first rank in 
scholarship and maintained it until he gradu- 
ated in 1854. He did not win popularity at 
first, but later was proudly acknowledged as the 
foremost man in the class. He threw himself 
with glad and vigorous activity into the current 
of college life, a leader in its sports and exercises 
and its public affairs. He chose for his valedic- 
tory oration, ''The Reverence due from Old 
Men to Young." 

As a workman he entered the iron mill of the 
Ames Company at Chicopee for a year, often 
meeting with his fellow-workers to talk on 
branches of science connected with their work. 
In 1856 he had accepted a position of great trust 
and great promise in the rolling-mill of the 



2 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

Trenton Iron Company, when there came upon 
him the great trial of his life, the growing shadow 
of disease, and he was directed to give up all 
work and try travel in another climate. A 
great fabric of noble ambition fell before this 
word. In February, 1856, Lowell sailed from 
New Orleans to Gibraltar. Even the Arabs 
admired his equestrian skill; at Algiers he took 
lessons in the use of the sword, and studied the 
movements of the French troops as he already 
had studied the Austrian military system in 
Italy. When he returned in 1858 he was em- 
ployed as treasurer on the B. & I. R.R. His 
health became gradually established, and in 
i860 he was placed in charge of iron works in 
Cumberland, Maryland, at the head of a small 
city of workmen, and once again his chosen 
work seemed to lie before him. 

Meantime the great election of i860 was 
approaching. Lowell had for years been a 
decided enemy to slavery. Edward W. Emer- 
son relates that when Anthony Burns was held 
for trial in Boston as a fugitive slave, Charles 
Lowell with another spirited boy had vainly 
tried to get speech with the United States Judge 
who was to give the doom; the two boys had 
looked on when, on Friday, June 2, 1854, 
Burns was led under guard down State Street to 
be taken back to bondage, and one of them 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 3 

said, "Charley, it will come to us to set this 
straight." The boy who spoke those words 
was Henry Lee Higginson. 

For five months of the year i860 Lowell 
had remained at Mount Savage, except for a 
business trip to New Orleans, and had found 
himself brought into more positive relations 
than ever before with political affairs. On 
April 20, 1 861, on hearing of the attack upon 
the Massachusetts Sixth, and of its men lying 
dead in Baltimore, Lowell instantly gave up 
his position at Mount Savage and set off for 
Washington to apply for a commission of 
Second Lieutenant of Artillery in the Regular 
Army. We have heard that when he applied 
to Secretary of War Cameron for a commission, 
Mr. Cameron, struck by his youthful appear- 
ance, said: "You, young man, what do you 
know of a horse ? " Charles answered, " Enough 
to take a hard day's work out of him and to 
bring him back fresh at night." It is certain 
that answer gave him a captaincy instead of a 
lieutenancy which he had asked for, either owing 
to the impression made on Cameron or to his 
services in another capacity. In his applica- 
tion to Mr. Sumner for a commission he an- 
swered the question as to his qualifications as 
follows: "I speak and write English, French, 
Italian, German, and Spanish, and know enough 



4 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

of mathematics to put me at the head of my 
class in Harvard, though now I need a little 
rubbing up; and am tolerably proficient with 
the small sword and the single stick; can ride 
a horse as far and bring him in as fresh as any 
other man. I am twenty-six years of age and 
I believe I possess more or less of moral courage 
about taking responsibility, which seems at 
present to be found only in Southern officers. 
If you have no appointment yet, perhaps you 
will have one from Iowa or from Maryland. 
I have been living in the latter State for a little 
over six months in charge of a rolling mill at 
Mount Savage. I heard of the trouble at Bal- 
timore and of the action of Governor Hicks on 
Saturday; at once gave up my place and started 
for Washington and was fortunate to get 
through here yesterday with several detentions. 
Whether the Union stands or falls, I believe the 
profession of arms will henceforth be more de- 
sirable and m.ore respected than it has been 
hitherto. I believe that with a week or two of 
preparation I could pass the examinations." 
Mr. Sumner sent in this letter thus endorsed by 
Mr. Forbes: "Lowell is a trump, full of brain, 
and quick-witted. I want him in various places 
and he is a valuable man for anybody. Grad- 
uated first in his class at Harvard." From this 
time Charles was happy; he had found all he 




CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 5 

asked, an object worthy of his efforts. The 
vague desire to do something for his fellow-men 
became a settled resolve to do all he could, 
whether much or little, for his country. His 
strong human feeling was concentrated on a 
definite task. 

After some important government work, 
Lowell received (May 14, 1861) his commission 
as Captain in the Third (afterward numbered 
Sixth) Regiment of United States Cavalry, 
drilling, making himself a master of cavalry 
tactics and military science, so that he was 
honored with the command of a squadron. 

For distinguished services at Williamsburg 
and Slatersville he was nominated for the 
brevet of Major in the battles on June 27th, 
and the following week cost him the life of his 
tenderly loved brother James, who was wounded 
at Glendale June 30th, and died July 4th. 

On July 10, 1862, Captain Lowell was de- 
tailed for duty as an aide to General McClellan, 
winning his esteem for efficient conduct at the 
second battle of Malvern Hill, August 5th, 
and in the arduous Maryland Campaign. At 
Antietam, September 17th, carrying orders to 
General Sedgwick's division he met it re- 
treating in confusion under a hot fire. Lowell 
rode rapidly, driving back and rallying the 
men, so that whole companies started forward 



6 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

with alacrity at his word, and the rout was 
checked. "He seemed a part of his horse and 
instinct with a perfect animal life. At the same 
time his eyes glistened and his face actually 
shone with the spirit and intelligence of which 
he was the embodiment." General McClellan 
gave Lowell the office of presenting to the Presi- 
dent the trophies of this campaign. 

In November he was ordered to report to 
Governor Andrew for the purpose of organizing 
the Second Massachusetts Cavalry of which he 
was appointed Colonel. 

During this winter of 1862-63 the first regi- 
ment of negroes raised in the North was pro- 
jected in Massachusetts. Lowell aided in every 
way, and was heartily pleased by the selection 
of Colonel Shaw to take charge. 

In May, Lowell left Boston with his regiment, 
and was placed in command of the Cavalry 
Department of Washington, for many months 
resisting the incursions of General Mosby, who 
wrote of him that "of all the Federal com- 
manders opposed to me, I had the highest re- 
spect for Colonel Lowell both as an officer and 
a gentleman." 

In July came the battle of Fort Wagner. 
Lowell wrote of Robert G. Shaw's death: 
"The manliness and high courage of such a 
man never die with him. They live in his 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 



comrades." "August I, '63. Everything that 
comes about Rob shows his death to have been 
more and more completely that which every 
soldier and every man would long to die; but 
it is given to very few, for very few did their 
duty as Rob did. I am thankful they buried 
him with his 'Niggers.' They were brave men 
and they were his men." 

Colonel Lowell married, October 31, 1863, 
Josephine, daughter of Francis G. Shaw, Esq., 
of Staten Island, New York, and Mrs. Lowell 
was able to go with her husband to the army for 
several months while there was a season of great 
tranquillity. 

On July 14, 1864, on a reconnaissance against 
General Early's demonstration against Wash- 
ington, a little beyond Rockville, the advance 
column was suddenly overwhelmed by a greatly 
superior force of the enemy and took up a 
rapid retreat; the flying battalion of the enemy 
came charging down upon Lowell, who had not 
even time to turn his men; there was a violent 
collision, and then the whole brigade went 
whirling in mad confusion toward Washington, 
the enemy at their heels. Lowell shouted, 
'^Dismount!'''' Seizing their carbines the men 
sprang from their saddles at the word of their 
dauntless commander. In another minute they 
were in line. On came the assailants, but such 






8 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

a deadly volley was poured into their ranks 
that both horses and riders recoiled. Lowell 
saw the enemy waver, advanced and turned the 
fortune of the day. With his little force, just 
now routed and in full retreat, but unable, 
even in a moment of panic, to forget its dis- 
cipline, he held his ground before two brigades 
of the enemy's best cavalry. 

July 26th Colonel Lowell was put in com- 
mand of a new provisional brigade. 

On the 6th of August, General Sheridan took 
command of the Army of the Shenandoah, on 
the loth moved up the Valley from Harper's 
Ferry, the Provisional Brigade (under Colonel 
Lowell) taking the outside position. The next 
day Lowell overtook the rear guard of the 
enemy, and after a sharp skirmish, drove it 
pell-mell through Winchester, and for two weeks 
Lowell's Brigade was fighting every day. On 
August 26 he led an attack on the advance of 
the enemy. Charging up to a rail fence, too 
high to leap, behind which was the enemy, 
Lowell actually whacked their muskets with 
his sabre; tearing down the fence, over they 
went; nothing could resist them. The Second 
Massachusetts captured seventy-four men, a 
lieutenant-colonel, three captains, and several 
lieutenants. This was the first time that Low- 
ell's men ever really measured him. "Such a 



CHARLES RUSSELL LOWELL 9 

noble scorn of death and danger they never 
saw before, and it inspired them with a courage 
that quailed at nothing." On September 3d 
the army was again in motion; and on the 8th 
Colonel Lowell was appointed to the command 
of the "Reserve Brigade," three regiments of 
regular cavalry, one of artillery, and his own 
volunteer regiment. Lowell had been utterly 
unknown to Sheridan at the beginning of the 
campaign. 

In the superb charge at Winchester, Septem- 
ber 19th, at one moment Lowell found himself 
with one captain and four men face to face with 
a rebel gun. The piece was discharged, killing 
both the horses, and tearing off the captain's 
arm. The Colonel quickly mounted the first 
horse that came up, and the gun was his. Thir- 
teen horses in all were shot under him in as 
many days. 

On September 5th Colonel Lowell wrote to 
his wife: "I like Sheridan immensely. . . . He 
works like a mill-owner or an iron-master." 

September 8: "The Second Massachusetts is 
transferred to the Reserve Brigade. . . . The 
change looks like making the Second Massachu- 
setts a permanent member of the Army of the 
Potomac, or that portion of it which is here." 

(To a disabled officer) September 10: "I hope 
that you are going to live like a plain republi- 



lO MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6l 

can, mindful of the beauty and the duty of 
simplicity. Don't seek office, but don't dis- 
remember that the 'useful citizen' always holds 
his time, his trouble, his money, and his life 
ready at the hint of his country." 

September 27: "We are about one mile be- 
yond Stanton, facing toward the Blue Ridge. 
We have found out pretty well where the Rebs 
are." 

October 5: "I do wish this war was over. . . . 
Never mind. I'm doing all I can to end it. 
Good-bye." 

(To his mother) October 17th: "There is 
nothing to tell here. We are in a glorious coun- 
try, . . . kept very active, and have done a good 
deal of good work. I have done my share, I 
think, but there is nothing to make a letter of." 

On October 15th General Sheridan had left 
the army, then strongly intrenched near Cedar 
Creek, for the purpose of visiting other points 
in the Valley. On the 19th, in the dawn of 
day, the enemy succeeded in accomplishing a 
surprise; the whole of our line, suddenly ex- 
posed to deadly fire from the rear, was driven 
and rushed headlong down the Valley, and at 
midday Sheridan came galloping from Win- 
chester and turned ruin into victory. 

Meantime, late in the evening of the i8th 
Lowell had orders to make a reconnaissance. 



CPL\RLES RUSSELL LOWELL 1 1 

Reveille at 4: at 4.30 his brigade was in motion 
and had saved the right wing from the disaster 
which befell the other end of the line. A dis- 
tinguished general wrote: ''They moved past 
me, that splendid cavalry. Lowell got by me 
before I could speak, but I looked after him a 
long distance. Exquisitely mounted, the pict- 
ure of a soldier, erect, confident, defiant, he 
moved at the head of the finest brigade of cav- 
alry that at this day scorns the earth it treads." 
Striking the turnpike just north of Middletown, 
which was already occupied by the enemy, 
Lowell established a position at the extreme 
left against great superiority of numbers till the 
final advance, when he received his mortal 
wound. He attended in person to the disposal 
of his men, a conspicuous mark for the sharp- 
shooters on the roofs of the village. His horse 
was shot under him early in the day. At one 
o'clock he was struck by a spent ball which 
deprived him of voice and strength. For one 
and one-half hours he lay on the ground under 
temporary shelter. Presently at three o'clock 
came the order for the general advance, which 
was to give us victory. "I feel well, now," he 
said, though too weak to mount his saddle with- 
out assistance. He sat his horse, firm and 
erect as ever; the color had come back to his 
cheeks, but he could not speak above a whisper. 



12 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6l 

He gave his orders through one of his staff, and 
his brigade was, as usual, the first ready. Just 
as they were in the thickest of the fire from the 
town, a cry arose, ''The Colonel is hit!" He 
fell from his horse into the arms of his aides 
and was carried forward in the track of his 
rapidly advancing brigade to a house within the 
village. He gave no sign of suffering; his mind 
was perfectly clear, calm and cheerful, though 
he knew he had no chance of life. He dictated 
private messages of affection, gave complete 
directions to his command, and as the day rose 
he ceased to breathe the air of earth. 




HENRY LEE HIGGINSON 



HENRY LEE HIGGINSON 13 



HENRY LEE HIGGINSON 

Born in New York, November 18, 1834. 
First Lieutenant in the Second Massachusetts 
Volunteer Infantry, July 8, 1861. Captain in 
the First Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry, 
October 31, 1861. Major in the First Massa- 
chusetts Volunteer Cavalry, March 28, 1862. 
Wounded at Aldie, Virginia, June, 1863. Died 
in Boston, November 14, 1919. 

Henry Lee Higginson, the descendant of an 
old Massachusetts family, was born in New 
York, November 18, 1834. He went to Har- 
vard College in 1851, with the class to which 
Phillips Brooks and Alexander Agassiz belonged, 
but left there in his Freshman year on account 
of trouble with his eyes. Afterwards he en- 
tered a counting-house, and in 1856 he went to 
Europe. There he travelled for a year, joined 
for a time by his friend Charles Russell Lowell, 
and later spent several years in Vienna, devoting 
himself to the study of music. He had hoped 
to become enough of a musician to make play- 
ing the pleasure and resource of his leisure hours, 
but an injury to his arm, followed by too much 
practising, made this impossible, and confined 
his studies to singing and the theory of music. 



14 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

While he was thus studying and hearing 
music, his appreciation of the part it might 
play in the life of the community grew, and 
the longing to bring the best orchestral music 
to his native land became a definite ideal in 
his mind. 

At this time, in his early twenties, he was full 
of the generous ardor that characterized his 
later years. He was a warm-hearted and de- 
voted friend, a believer in the great future of 
his country and full of an eager determination 
to do all he could for her, a lover of the arts, 
and a would-be servant of humanity. From 
the first he wanted to help others; he was ready 
to have faith in them, and to take them into his 
affections. His sympathy with the young kept 
him always young, and his readiness to fight 
the wrong was as strong in his last as in his early 
years. He was far-sighted, too, and among the 
first in this country to rouse the young men to 
prepare to take their part in the recent Euro- 
pean War. 

Now that his career is over, it is wonderful 
to look back to its beginning and see how his 
resolutions were carried out, for he was one of 
the lovers of the truth of whom Lowell wrote : — 

"Those love her best who to themselves are true, 
And what they dare to dream of, dare to do." 



HENRY LEE HIGGINSON 1 5 

Drawn by a strong sense of patriotism he 
came home from Europe in i860. His country 
was on the eve of civil war. He volunteered in 
what came to be the Second Massachusetts 
Regiment under Colonel Gordon. The very 
day that Fort Sumter was fired on, Colonel 
Gordon tendered his services to the Govern- 
ment and State through Governor Andrew, and 
Henry Higginson within a few weeks was drill- 
ing under Gordon at Brook Farm in West Rox- 
bury. He was made a second lieutenant, then 
full lieutenant, and went from there July 8, 
1 86 1. On October 31st he was transferred to 
the First Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer 
Cavalry with the commission of captain, and on 
March 28, 1862, he was commissioned a major. 
To quote his own words: "I went out in the 
Second Infantry; later was put into the First 
Cavalry, Massachusetts; served at Port Royal, 
and then came North and served in Virginia 
until June, 1863, when I was wounded at Aldie, 
Virginia, was sent home, invalided for nearly a 
year; then was on General Barlow's staff for a 
short time, but had not recovered enough to 
bear the work, so left." 

Colonel Henry Lee wrote of him: ''One of 
my four nephews, Henry Higginson, Major of 
Cavalry, is just off his bed, having recovered 
from two sabre cuts on his head; and had a ball 



1 6 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

extricated from his back-bone which the rebels 
fired at him as he lay on the ground." He bore 
all his life the scar of the sabre cut across his 
cheek. 

On December 5, 1863, he married Ida, daugh- 
ter of Louis Agassiz. 

In 1868 he entered the firm of Lee, Higginson 
& Co. of Boston. Years of hard work and de- 
votion to business and civic interests followed, 
during which he held steadfastly to the dream 
of his early days, that of establishing a really 
fine orchestra. This hope he realized in 1881; 
and for all the years after that, until the dark 
shadow of the great war in Europe eclipsed for 
a season the light and joy of the Symphony con- 
certs, he put his heart, and a great part of the 
wealth his days of toil had gathered, into the 
support of the orchestra. His wisdom and un- 
tiring patience collected skilled musicians from 
all parts of the world and gave to Boston con- 
certs of unsurpassed beauty. It was a great 
satisfaction to him in his last year to know that 
the Symphony Orchestra he had built up and 
sustained for thirty-seven years was to go on 
under the direction of his friends. 

Major Higginson had a genius for friendship. 
He loved his friends and he believed in good 
fellowship; and besides the music he gave to 
the public are his two great monuments to 



HENRY LEE HIGGINSON 17 

friendship. The first of these is Soldier's Field, 
given to Harvard College in 1890, to be used as 
a playground for its students, and dedicated 
"To the Happy Memory" of six of his "Friends, 
Comrades and Kinsmen who died for their 
Country" in the Civil War. The second is 
the Harvard Union, a building given by him to 
Harvard in 1901, "a house open to all Harvard 
men without restriction and in which they all 
stand equal, a house bearing no name forever 
except that of our University. . . . May it be 
used for the general good and may private ends 
never be sought here! ... In these halls may 
you, young men, see visions and dream dreams, 
and may you keep steadily burning the fire of 
high ideals, enthusiasm and hope, otherwise you 
cannot share in the great work and glory of our 
new century. . . . Let Memorial Hall stand a 
temple consecrated to the spirit of large patriot- 
ism and of true democracy. Let this house stand 
a temple to the same spirit and to friendship." 

These gifts were the least of the services Mr. 
Higginson rendered to his college. For twenty- 
six years he was a Fellow of the Corporation, 
and, as noted by President Eliot, attended its 
meetings "with the utmost punctuality, assid- 
uity and devotion, and with the highest intelli- 
gence." He always looked upon it as a privi- 
lege to do so. 



1 8 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

The knowledge that he felt it to be a privilege 
to help all good causes made it easy for people 
to turn to him constantly for aid and inspira- 
tion, and made it a matter of course that the 
flags of the city should be at half-mast when it 
was known that he had gone from us, who had 
so often been affectionately called "Our First 
Citizen." m.c.p. 




STEPHEN GEORGE PERKINS 



STEPHEN GEORGE PERKINS 1 9 



STEPHEN GEORGE PERKINS 

Born in Boston, September 18, 1835. Killed 
at Cedar Mountain, Virginia, August 9, 1862. 
Second Lieutenant, Second M.V.M. Infantry, 
July 8, 1861. First Lieutenant, Second M.V.M. 
Infantry, July 11, 1861. 

"Stephen Perkins's friends were among the 
most gifted young men of the day." "He was 
beloved by all who came into contact with him 
and becoming constantly a finer and finer type 
of noble and intelligent boyhood." He entered 
Harvard College in 1855, but on account of 
his eyes joined the class of '56; he spent a year 
in the Law School, and graduated from the 
Scientific School in mathematics in 1861. At 
the Harvard College Regatta at Springfield, 
'55, Perkins was one of the picked crew of the 
Harvard four-oar, composed of John and Lang- 
don Erving, Alexander Agassiz, and Stephen 
Perkins, three of whom, including Stephen, 
were over six feet in height. 

Stephen Perkins's peculiar charm lay in a 
sensation of tranquil strength, of indefinite 
resources, of reserved power, "effecting by a 
single quiet word or look what others had 



20 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

toiled and stormed in vain to accomplish." 
One of his relatives had remarked to him 
rather heedlessly at the outbreak of the war 
that the war was not likely to come home to 
their two lives, for instance, in any immediate 
way. He answered with an unwonted serious- 
ness that was almost sternness, "I do not know 
that it will make any difference in your life, 
but it is likely to make a very great difference 
to mine." The war came. In a few days 
he had enlisted and was engaged in the most 
tedious service in the Army of the Potomac. 
The disastrous battle of Cedar Mountain took 
place August 9, 1862. Robert G. Shaw wrote, 
"All our officers behaved nobly." There Per- 
kins fell, pierced by three bullets. 

A brother officer, Major Henry L. Higginson, 
wrote of him, reviewing that short life in the 
days before the war: "Stephen might never 
have done anything tangible, but he would 
always have elevated his friends and associates 
in purpose and in tone, and thus indirectly have 
accomplished much. Men of his kind will be 
more necessary after than before the war. I've 
seen men enough, the world over, but never 
one of his kind, and very, very few equal to 
him. When I remember his handsome face 
with such warm blue eyes, and such a beautiful 
smile, his voice and jolly laugh, his honesty and 



STEPHEN GEORGE PERKINS 21 

purity of mind and soul, his wonderful insight 
of men and things, beyond all his wonderfully 
warm feelings for his real friends, so very 
marked, it seems to me that a big piece of life 
was snatched away." 

Charles Francis Adams in his autobiography 
wrote of Stephen Perkins, "Stephen was per- 
haps the closest of my friends. The choicest 
mind I ever knew. He was manly, simple, re- 
fined and he had withal fine perceptions and a 
delicate humor. . . . He loved to talk but in a 
quiet, observant and reflective way. He was 
mature and self-respecting, one who thought 
much; one who looked quite through the acts 
of men. When I heard of his death I felt that 
I had lost something that could never be re- 
placed." 



22 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 



JAMES SAVAGE, Jr. 

Born in Boston, April 2i, 1832. Captain, 
Second M.V. Infantry, May 24, 1861. Major, 
June 23, 1862. Lieutenant-Colonel, September 
17, 1862. Died at Charlottesville, Virginia, 
October 22, 1862, of wounds received at Cedar 
Mountain, August 9, 1862. 

As a boy his love of outdoor play was inex- 
haustible. One of his comrades says, *'His side 
at football would win if he could make it, for 
in rush or race it took a good player to compete 
with him; and yet withal he was such a gentle 
and noble fellow that everybody loved him and 
felt he would never do a mean thing; all he 
w^anted was fair play." His love of nature, of 
music and other arts made his trip to Europe 
in 1854 a keen joy to him. 

Becoming interested in conditions in our 
Southern States, Savage in 1859 gave himself 
heart and soul to do all in his power toward the 
freedom of the slaves. In the spring of 1861, 
when it had become clear that war was the only 
alternative, he joined the Salignac Drill Club 
and was the first member of that Club to apply 
for a commission in Gordon's Regiment. With 




JAMES SAVAGE, Jr. 



JAMES SAVAGE, Jr. 23 

his friends Wilder Dwight and Greeley S. Curtis 
a plan had been formed to organize a regiment 
of infantry and offer it to the United States. 
Two graduates of West Point, Messrs. Gordon 
and Andrew, were induced to take the highest 
appointments, and the Second M.V.M. Regi- 
ment was thus formed. Major Henry L. Hig- 
ginson, in his address at the giving of the Sol- 
dier's Field to Harvard College, said: "We two 
fellows [James Savage and Henry Higginson] 
went to Fitchburg, just after war was declared, 
to recruit a company for the Second Massachu- 
setts Infantry, and when our regiment was 
ready to march, the colors were entrusted to 
us. This recruiting was strange work to us all, 
and the men who came to our little recruiting- 
office asked many new questions, which I did 
my best to answer; but often these recruits 
would turn to the 'captain' as they called him, 
listen to his replies, and then swear allegiance, 
as it were, to him. He, the quietest and most 
modest of men, was immensely impressive, for 
he was a real knight — just and gentle to all 
friends, defiant to the enemies of his country 
and to all wrong-doers." 

James Savage had steadily declined promo- 
tion which would remove him from the Second 
Regiment, unless for a colored regiment. When 
the raising of such a regiment was discussed 



24 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

and Major Copeland and Lieutenant Shaw ap- 
pealed to him, "Now, Jim, we want you to go 
with us, will you?" Jim was lying down, rest- 
ing on his elbow; he instantly sprang up. " Yes, 
I'll go with you if only as a sergeant," and no 
one was more disappointed at the failure of the 
plan at that time than he. 

The following letter merits insertion as indi- 
cating his feeling on the same general subject. 
From it the following extracts are quoted: — 

March 30, 1862, about four miles south of 
Strasburg, Virginia, approaching the Shenan- 
doah range, waiting for the mending of a broken 
bridge, *'the contrabands flocked to see the 
^sogers' and told us what they had learned 
from their masters about us Yankees; that if 
the Yankees got hold of them they would cut 
their right hands and feet off; that their mas- 
ters had won all the battles and whipped us 
terribly; how they thought 'old Mr. Brown' 
must have had hundreds of men with him; how 
all the blacks about here knew he was their 
friend and the terror of their white rulers. One 
man almost as white as I, the son of his master 
and the father of nine children, two of whom 
he had with him, had interested me very much; 
looked like Neapolitans, perhaps a little fairer. 
His gratitude to God when he told us how his 
wife and children had been left to him when so 



JAMES SAVAGE, Jr. 2$ 

many of his neighbors told him of having lost 
theirs by having them sold, was very touching. 
We talked with him and his two dear little boys 
for nearly two hours, and that was my Sunday 
sermon." 

On June 13, 1862, James Savage was pro- 
moted to be Major, on September 17th to be 
Lieutenant-Colonel. Lieutenant Miller wrote: 
"The 9th of August our brigade marched to 
about one mile of Cedar Mountain. I was 
struck and taken prisoner. The surgeon told 
me that Major Savage was also wounded and 
a prisoner. The Major was very cheerful 
though in considerable pain. Three weeks later 
his leg was amputated and he knew that he 
could not possibly survive." 

Captain Shaw wrote Mr. Savage, August 12, 
1862: "After amputation of his leg his mind 
seemed to be at peace. The only comfort his 
friends had was the assurance that his loved 
Harry [Captain Russell] had stayed to cheer 
and aid him, though Russell must in conse- 
quence become a prisoner." 

The last words written by James were from 
the hospital on August i8th, to Professor 
Rogers: "I am pretty much broken up but sure 
of the best treatment. Your friends here leave 
nothing to be desired — best love to all, from 
your Major." 



26 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

And there came from Captain H. S. Russell, 
Libby Prison in Richmond, "I was taken when 
tying a handkerchief around J. S.'s leg. Write 
to his father." After some weeks came a letter 
to his father announcing the death of a prisoner 
of war. 




WILDER DWIGHT 



WILDER DWIGHT 27 



WILDER DWIGHT 

Born April 23, 1833, In Springfield, Mass. 
Died September 19, 1862, of wounds received 
at Antietam, September 17, 1862. Major, 
Second Regiment M.V.M., May 20, 1861. 
June 13, 1862, promoted by Governor Andrew 
to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Massa- 
chusetts. 

In boyhood as in manhood he was recognized 
as one in whom to place an absolute trust. He 
took high rank as a scholar and maintained it 
through college, and on leaving the Law School 
he received a first prize. Was admitted to the 
Bar in 1856, began practice in 1857, and became 
partner of Horace Gray, Jr.; but when the war 
came ''he gave up to his country, without a 
moment's hesitation, all that he had gained 
and all that he was." "He suffered not a day 
to pass, after the news from Sumter, before 
opening a subscription paper to guarantee the 
expenses which would be incurred in the enter- 
prise." On the 15th of July, 1861, while in 
bivouac at Bunker Hill, he wrote: "I have 
always had a dream and theory about the vir- 
tues that were called out by war. The calling 



28 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

needs a whole man and it exacts very much 
of him. Self gets thrown into the background." 
On August 3d in bivouac on Maryland Heights, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Dwight wrote: "If you 
could have seen the helplessness in which the 
flour ration left us and the stupidity of the 
men in its use you would hail as the dawn 
the busy frying of doughnuts which goes on 
here now." "Our triumphs just now are 
chiefly culinary, but 'A soldier's courage lies in 
his stomach,' says Frederick the Great, and I 
mean that the commissary captains and cooks 
shall accept the doctrine and apply its lessons 
if I can make them." At times his eagerness 
for action would express itself. "Do not spend 
your days in regretting this or that life, — lives 
whose whole sweetness and value depend upon 
their opportunities, not upon their length." As 
late as May 9, 1862, the service of the regiment 
was still to wait. Lieutenant-Colonel Dwight 
writes, "Of course this is a severe trial to me, — 
the severest, I think, of my life." Two weeks 
later his regiment saw its first action on the 
field on the occasion of General Banks's retreat 
in May, 1862, after the Battle of Winchester. 
General Gordon reported, "Major Dwight while 
gallantly bringing up the rear of the regiment 
was missed somewhere near the outskirts of the 
this brave officer, so cool upon the 



WILDER DWIGHT 29 

field, so efficient everywhere, so much beloved 
in his regiment, and whose gallant services of 
the 24th will never be forgotten by them." 

While missing and mourned as dead. Major 
Dwight, while helping a wounded soldier, had 
been taken prisoner, and General Jackson gave 
his permission to eight of the Second Massa- 
chusetts prisoners to go out as escort for the 
burial of their companions. 

On June 2d the Major was seen running on 
foot toward the regiment. The officers ran to 
meet him. More than one lifted him in his 
arms. The men ran from their tents toward 
the lim.its of the camp. They could not be 
restrained; they broke camp and poured down 
upon the Major with the wildest enthusiasm. 
A little later the regiment was drawn up around 
the Major, who was reading to them from a 
paper which he held in his hand. He gave 
them the names of those of their comrades who 
were prisoners in Winchester. He told them 
who were wounded, and the nature of their 
wounds. He told them of their dead, and of 
the burial upon which even the rebels of Win- 
chester had looked with respect. Then he said: 
"And now, do you want to know what the 
rebels think of the Massachusetts Second.^ 
'Who was it ambuscaded us near Bartonsville.^' 
asked a cavalry officer of me. I replied, 'That 



30 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6l 

was the Massachusetts Second.' An officer of 
rebel infantry asked me who it was that was at 
the Run near Bartonsville. *That was the Mas- 
sachusetts Second,' said I. 'Whose,' asked an- 
other officer, 'was the battery so splendidly 
served, and the line of sharpshooters behind the 
stone wall, who picked off every officer of ours 
who showed himself?' 'That was the Massa- 
chusetts Second,' said I. On the whole, the 
rebels came to the conclusion that they had been 
fighting the Massachusetts Second, and they 
did not care to do it again in the dark." 

The next day he wrote from Washington: 
"I am here to see about my exchange, etc. I 
am sorry you had so much anxiety about me, 
but thankful to be able to relieve it. My re- 
ception by the regiment is reward enough. I 
must get back to them." 

Chaplain Quint said, "You will know how 
nobly he commanded his little band of skir- 
mishers on Saturday night last; how his small 
force was formed against cavalry and infantry 
with entire success; how his clear, cool, delib- 
erate words of command inspired the men so 
that no man faltered, while, in ten minutes, one 
company lost one-fourth of its number." 

At the battle of Antietam, Colonel Dwight 
was mortally wounded. His only regret was 
that he could not longer serve the cause. " I have 



WILDER DWIGHT 3 1 

lived a soldier, I die a soldier, I wish to be 
buried as a soldier." He called out, "Who 
asked for the Second Regiment? I tell you 
where the Second Regiment was yesterday, — 
in the foremost front of the battle, fighting like 
men; and we drove them, boys, — drove them." 
Colonel Andrews had sent him word of our 
battle. "It is a glorious time to die!" was his 
joyful exclamation. 



MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 



ROBERT GOULD SHLWV 

Private Seventh Xew York \'olunteer Mili- 
tia, April 19, 1 861. Second Lieutenant Second 
Massachusetts \'olunteers (Infantry), May 28, 
1 86 1. First Lieutenant, July 8, 1861. Cap- 
tain, August 10, 1862. Colonel Fifty-fourth 
^LV. Infantry, April 17, 1863. Killed at Fort 
Wagner, South Carolina, July 18, 1863. 

Robert Gould Shaw was born in Boston, 
October 10, 1837. In 1851 the family went to 
Europe, and Robert passed a happy summer in 
Switzerland. In November, 1852, he wrote 
from Xeuchatel, full of interest in affairs in 
France. "Have you seen that book 'Uncle 
Tom's Cabin'.'" August 7, 1853: "Have you 
heard anything about the new Slave Law in 
Illinois .' I think it is much worse than the law 
of 1850. Have you read the Key to 'Uncle 
Tom's Cabin' ? I've been reading 'Uncle Tom's 
Cabin' again, and always like it better than 
before. I don't see how one man could do 
much against slavery." In 1855: "I read a 
long account of the new x\bolition Society of 
Xew York and of a slave having been burnt 
alive in Alabama. I did not think this last 
would ever happen again." 




ROBERT GOULD SHAW" 



ROBERT GOULD SHAW 33 

Robert Shaw reached home in May and en- 
tered Harvard in August, 1856. In November, 
1 86 1, he cast his first and only vote, for Lincoln 
and enlisted as private in the Seventh New 
York National Guards, believing there might 
be trouble in the country after the inaugura- 
tion and he would not be willing to remain in an 
office if the country needed soldiers. April 18, 

1 86 1, he wrote his father a farewell note and 
left in July, Lieutenant in the Massachusetts 
Second Regiment, for the seat of war. 

Near Culpeper Court House at the Battle of 
Cedar Mountain, Shaw was serving as aide on 
General Gordon's staflF. He writes, August 12, 

1862, near Culpeper Court House: "I was with 
General Gordon, who sent me back to get some 
artillery through the woods. It was impossible 
to do it because the brush was so thick, and 
besides I hadn't been gone five minutes before 
the enemy got us under a cross fire and our 
brigade had to retreat. They advanced so 
close to the Second before they gave way that 
it was easy to distinguish all their features. 
There were 474 enlisted men taken into action 
in the Second. Of these 120 were killed and 
wounded and 37 missing. They were not under 
fire thirty minutes. 22 officers went in and 8 
came out. Goodwin, Cary, Choate, and Ste- 
phen Perkins were all quite ill but would not 



34 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

Stay away from the fight." Early in 1863 
Governor Andrew offered Shaw the colonelcy 
of a colored regiment to be raised in Alassachu- 
setts, being the first recruited under state 
authority, though one was already in service in 
South Carolina and another in Kansas. In 
answer to this his father brought back a letter 
to the Governor declining, as "not having abil- 
ity for the undertaking," but on February 5th 
Robert telegraphed, "Please tell the Governor 
that I accept," and he wrote, "There is great 
prejudice against it — at any rate I shan't be 
frightened out of it by unpopularity." March 
25: "The intelligence of the men is a great 
surprise to me." March 30: "The mustering 
officer who was here to-day is a Virginian, and 
he always thought it was a great joke to make 
soldiers of 'niggers' but he tells me now that he 
has never mustered in so fine a set of men, 
though about 20,000 have passed through his 
hands since September. The sceptics need 
only to come out here to be converted." Just 
after this, on May 28, 1863, Colonel Shaw led 
his regiment through Pemberton Square and 
off to the South. I can see him now, — Colonel 
Shaw, — riding with his hat off as he passed the 
balcony where Mrs. Mary Lowell Putnam stood, 
to greet her and thus to express the thanks of 
the Fifty-fourth Regiment for the banner which 



ROBERT GOULD SHAW 35 

she had presented. This banner bore a gold 
cross upon a blue ground with the motto, "In 
hoc signo vinces" (By this sign you shall 
conquer). 

From St. Helena's Island, July 6, Colonel 
Shaw wrote, "I want to get my men alongside 
of white troops and into a good fight if there is 
to be one." 

James Island, July 15th: "Two hundred of 
my men on picket duty this morning were at- 
tacked by five regiments of infantry, some cav- 
alry and a battery of artillery. The Tenth 
Connecticut was on their left and say they 
should have had a hard time if the Fifty-fourth 
men had not stood so well." "I have just 
come in from the front with my regiment where 
we were sent as soon as the rebels retired. This 
shows that the events of the morning did not 
destroy the General's confidence in us." 

Morris Island, July 18: "We are in General 
Strong's brigade. We came up here last night 
in a very heavy rain. Fort Wagner is being 
heavily bombarded. We are not far from it. 
We hear nothing but praise for the Fifty-fourth 
on all hands." After writing the above (the 
last words he ever wrote in this world) he re- 
ceived orders to report with his regiment at 
General Strong's headquarters, and there he 
was offered the post of honor because of the 



36 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

greatest danger, the advance in the work as- 
signed for that very evening, the assault upon 
Fort Wagner. Here then came the opportu- 
nity he had waited for; he accepted it without 
hesitation. One who was at General Strong's 
headquarters writes (Beaufort, S.C., July 22) : 
"The troops looked worn and weary; had been 
without tents during the pelting rains of the 
two previous nights. When they came within 
six hundred yards of Fort Wagner they formed 
in line of battle, the Colonel heading the first 
and the Major the second battalion. With the 
Sixth Connecticut and Ninth Maine and others 
they remained half an hour. Then the order 
for * charge' was given. The regiment marched 
at quick, then at double-quick time. When 
about one hundred yards from the Fort the 
rebel musketry opened with such terrible fire 
that for an instant the first battalion hesitated; 
but only for an instant, for Colonel Shaw, 
springing to the front and waving his sword, 
shouted, 'Forward, Fifty-fourth!' and with 
another cheer and shout they rushed through 
the ditch and gained the parapet on the right. 
Colonel Shaw was one of the first to scale the 
walls. He stood erect to urge forward his men, 
and while shouting for them to press on was 
shot dead and fell into the fort," and "now 
sleeps there with the brave fellows who were 



ROBERT GOULD SHAW 37 

with him in his life." A Southern soldier has 
since said, "It looked [his face] as calm and 
fresh and natural as if he were sleeping." A 
stalwart negro man had fallen near him. The 
rebels said the man was a color-sergeant. The 
brigadier commanding the rebel forces said to 
me: "I knew Colonel Shaw before the war and 
then esteemed him. Had he been in command 
of white troops I should have given him an 
honorable burial. As it is, I shall bury him in 
the common trench with the negroes that fell 
with him." 



38 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6l 



HENRY STURGIS RUSSELL 

Henry Sturgis Russell was born June 21, 
1838. Graduated from Harvard College, i860. 
In 1 861 joined Fourth Battalion; May 28, 
1861, was commissioned First Lieutenant in the 
Massachusetts Second Regiment "of Volunteer 
Infantry; December 31st, Captain of his first 
company; January, 1863, Lieutenant-Colonel 
of Second Massachusetts Cavalry; Brigadier- 
General of Volunteers, 1865. 

On July 21, 1865, Governor Andrew said of 
Captain Russell: — 

''I know of no incident of more perfect, of 
more heroic gentility, bespeaking a noble 
nature, than the act performed by one captain 
of the Second Massachusetts . . . who, standing 
by the side of Lieutenant-Colonel Savage, . . . 
who was fatally wounded, and not believed by 
the enemy to be worth the saving, [Captain 
Russell] refused to surrender until he had wrung 
from the enemy the pledge that they would, 
in capturing him, save also his comrade and 
bear him back to the nearest hospital; declar- 
ing that, if they did not, he single-handed and 
alone would fight it out, and sell his life at the 
dearest cost." 




HENRY STURGIS RUSSELL 



HENRY STURGIS RUSSELL 



39 



Not many weeks later, kindly cared for, 
Colonel Savage died of his wounds. Captain 
Russell was committed to Libby Prison and 
remained there till November 15, 1862. In 
January, 1863, he was made Lieutenant-Colonel 
of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. On 
April 5, 1864, Captain Russell accepted the 
colonelcy of the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, 
a negro regiment. Between Russell and his 
cousin, Robert G. Shaw, there had existed a 
close friendship. Shaw's death at Fort Wag- 
ner had lately occurred; and now Russell, tak- 
ing the offered colonelcy, quietly said, "Bob 
would have liked to have me do it!" 

It was at the head of this regiment, June 15, 
1864, before Petersburg, that Colonel Russell 
received his first wound, and special commen- 
dation from General Grant which led a year 
later to his brevet as Brigadier-General of Vol- 
unteers, "for distinguished gallantry and good 
conduct, and by his extra capacity for the con- 
trol of men." 

This colored regiment entered Richmond 
among the first troops. 

On May 6, 1864, Colonel Russell married 
Mary H. Forbes. February 14, 1865, he left 
the army and soon retired to his "Home Farm" 
in Milton, where he passed much of his life. 

In 1878 Russell accepted from Mayor Pierce 



40 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

the position of Chairman of the Board of Police 
Commissioners. 

For two years he toiled hard, vigilant by night 
and laborious by day, and brought the force 
into fine shape. Then he resigned and en- 
joyed some long, pleasant years upon his farm 
until, January 14, 1895, he was appointed by 
Mayor Curtis to be Fire Commissioner of the 
City of Boston, and held the position for ten 
years. It was long and arduous work to bring 
it up to his ideal, but Major Russell left the 
Department undoubtedly the best organized 
and the most efficient fire department in the 
country. With his subalterns he was popular 
and even with the rank and file, for, though 
very rigid, and a strict disciplinarian, he was 
not a martinet. He made short work of dis- 
quieting agitations concerning hours and pay, 
yet his men, proud of being part of so fine an 
organization as he had created, did not audibly 
murmur. He was still in office when death 
came to him in Boston, February 16, 1905. 

Major Henry Lee Higginson, writing of Rus- 
sell, May 4, 1919, said: "In reply to your note, 
Harry Russell went to the war as First Lieu- 
tenant in the Second Volunteer Infantry in 
May, 1 86 1. The Regiment had various expe- 
riences in Virginia during that summer of '61, 
the winter of '62, and so on, held the [ ] of 



HENRY STURGIS RUSSELL 41 

the army under Banks in his first foolish move 
and was driven back — was badly hurt at Cedar 
Mountain in the summer of '62, distinguished 
itself at Antietam. Harry stopped to look 
after James Savage at Cedar Mountain and 
was captured and sent to Richmond. By and 
by he came back and presently was made 
Lieutenant-Colonel in the Second Massachu- 
setts Cavalry (after his engagement to Miss 
Mary Forbes) and then later was made Colonel 
of the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry (colored). 
This regiment entered Richmond among the 
first troops. About that time Harry left the 
service. He w^as in all respects and every- 
where an excellent officer, greatly liked and 
admired by everybody; he was wounded, but 
just where I have forgotten. He was really a 
great favorite among his mates and deserved 
it " 



42 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6l 



JAMES JACKSOX HIGGINSON 

Born in the city of New York, June 19, 1S36. 
Died in New York City, January 5, 191 1. 
Second Lieutenant First Massachusetts Cav- 
alry, January 6, 1863. First Lieutenant First 
Massachusetts Cavalry, January 4, 1864. Cap- 
tain September i, 1864. Brevet Major U.S. 
\'olunteers, April 9, 1865. Li the Army of the 
Potomac to the end of the war. He resigned 
May 27, 1865. (Original Companion of the 
Military Order of the Loyal Legion.) 

James Jackson Higginson had been fitted in 
the Boston Latin School for his entrance to 
Harvard College from which he was graduated 
with honor in 1857. After studying law in 
Europe he returned to the L'nited States in 
1862; served for a few weeks as an agent for 
the Sanitary Commission in Washington; was 
commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Mas- 
sachusetts \'olunteer Cavalry and was rapidly 
promoted, attaining the rank of major in April, 
1865, "for gallant and meritorious services re- 
sulting in the fall of Richmond, and the sur- 
render of the insurgent army under General 
R. E. Lee," and serving in the Army of the 
Potomac to the end of the war. 




JAMES JACKSOX HIGGIXSOX 



JAMES JACKSON HIGGINSON 43 

James Higginson had taken part in the Battle 
of Aldie Creek in the Gettysburg Campaign, 
was made a prisoner and confined in Libby 
Prison, Richmond, for nine months until March, 
1864, when released by exchange. He rejoined 
his regiment before Petersburg and shortly after 
was detached for special duty at the headquar- 
ters of General Meade, with whom he served 
through the subsequent movements and battles 
of the Army of the Potomac up to and includ- 
ing the surrender of General Lee in April, 1865. 

In 1867 he came to New York City, where for 
twenty-five years he was a member of the stock- 
brokerage firm of Chase & Higginson. Mr. 
Chase had been his companion in Libby Prison 
with whom he had shared his blanket, when he 
had one. 

On November 11, 1869, Mr. Higginson mar- 
ried Margaret Bethune, daughter of Archibald 
and Elizabeth Bethune Gracie. 

James Higginson's service to his country did 
not end with the war. Like his brother Henry, 
everything that had to do with the welfare of 
his fellow-citizens was dear to his heart, and 
claimed his thought, time, and means. 

"During his active business life and after his 
retirement from business he gave a large part 
of his time to public service. He was one of 
the early members of the Council of the Char- 



44 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

ity Organization Society; he was one of the 
trustees of the House of Refuge; for many 
years he served as president of the New York 
Eye and Ear Infirmary; and from 1902 to 1905 
was a member of the Board of Education." 
His love of Harvard College was always a strong 
interest in his life, and he joined the Harvard 
Club in 1876, giving to it much time and devo- 
tion, and finally becoming its president, which 
office he held at the time of his death. 

He was a warm and faithful friend, and was 
widely mourned as a man of generous and just 
spirit, of strong and manly character. 




JAMES JACKSON LOWELL 



JAMES JACKSON LOWELL 45 



JAMES JACKSON LOWELL 

Born October 15, 1837, in Cambridge, Mass. 
Died July 4, 1862, at Nelson's Farm near Rich- 
mond, Virginia. 

James Jackson Lowell passed from the Boston 
Latin School to Harvard College in 1854, grad- 
uating in 1858 as first scholar in his class. While 
he would walk a dozen miles for wild flowers, 
skate all day and dance as long as the band 
would play, he found no study too dry. " He 
was full of life, enjoyed keenly, pursued eagerly 
and crowded every hour with work or pleasure." 
In i860 Lowell entered the Law School. Mean- 
time the war began. On July 10, 1861, J. J. 
Lowell and his cousin William Lowell Putnam 
received their commissions as first and second 
lieutenants in the Twentieth M.V.M., and 
after a few days at Washington the regiment 
was ordered to Poolesville, Maryland, where it 
lay in camp till October 20th. On October 
2 1st was fought the Battle of Ball's Bluff. 
Lowell was shot in the thigh. Captain Schmitt 
badly wounded, and Putnam killed. Our only 
consolation was the gallant behavior of our 
troops in a desperate situation. Lowell re- 



46 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

luctantly went home, and while recovering, 
some of his classmates presented him with a 
sword to replace the one lost in the confusion 
at Ball's Bluff. In February he rejoined his 
regiment. On March nth the Twentieth left 
the camp at Poolesville and was transferred to 
the Peninsula, reached Yorktown April 8th and 
remained there until the 4th of May. Lowell 
wrote on the 25th regretting that he was not 
in the advance with his brother: — 

"The severe fighting at Fair Oaks occurred 
on May 31st and the ist of June, at Yorktown 
we were held as a reserve, at Fair Oaks we had 
a foretaste of what is coming before the forts of 
Richmond. On Saturday, on being ordered 
forward, we advanced through an interminable 
swamp and across the Chickahominy . . . and 
came up into the field of battle. ... As we had 
been fairly on the run the companies were more 
or less broken and I supposed that some of my 
weaker and doubtful men had fallen out on the 
way. Much to my delight I found that every 
man was there, even in this place of compara- 
tive rest. Three a.m. always finds us in line 
of battle." Lowell remained near Fair Oaks 
until the 8th of June. "June 27: still in camp 
but a brisk cannonading is going on." On the 
29th joined in the retreat across the Peninsula. 
Lowell led his company until the afternoon of 



JAMES JACKSOX LOWELL 47 

the 30th, when he received a mortal wound in 
the fight at Glendale. He desired that his 
father might be told that he was struck while 
dressing the line of his men. Two of our sur- 
geons who had been left with the wounded at 
the farm were much impressed by his behavior, 
and one of them told the rebel officer to talk 
with him if he wished to know how a Northern 
soldier thought and felt. He lingered four days 
and died on July 4th. Lowell was among the 
earliest of the Harvard soldiers to fall by the 
hand of the enemy. While the soul of this noble 
young soldier was passing slowly away, his 
sister, a volunteer nurse, was at Harrison's Bar, 
only a few miles away, and tried every expedi- 
ent to get to him. The serenity with which he 
received the summons of death came from 
neither bland enthusiasm nor from apathy. 
No one could be less indifferent to the grief it 
would cause at home. It was to the three 
nephews that Mr. James Russell Lowell re- 
ferred in a poem to R. G. Shaw: — 

"I write of one while with dim eyes I think of three, 
Who weep not others fair and brave as he? 

Ah I When the fight is won . . ." 

The formal letter in which Lowell acknowl- 
edged the gift of the sword contains a passage 
which serves to illustrate the spirit with which 



48 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

our soldiers went to the war: "When the Class 
meets in years to come, and honors its states- 
men and judges, its divines and doctors, let 
also the score who went to fight for their coun- 
try be remembered and let not those who never 
returned be forgotten, — those who died for the 
cause of civilization and law, and the self- 
restrained freedom which is their result." 

A friend wrote his mother: — 

"Don't you think that Jim's dying has ac- 
complished as much as his life may have done? 
I never knew how much I relied upon Jim, — 
not so much for his friendship, which I think 
I prized above that of all others, but for his 
almost startHng simplicity and correctness of 
judgment in all matters we talked about." 




WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM 



WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM 49 



WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM 

Born in Boston, Mass., July 9, 1840. Died 
October 22, 1861. July 21, 1861, Second Lieu- 
tenant in Tv/entieth Regiment, M.V.M. Fell 
mortally wounded at Ball's Bluif, October 21, 
1861. 

William Lowell Putnam was born in Boston, 
July 9, 1840. He was the youngest of our 
group of cousins who used to shout Scott's 
rousing verses as we played Highlanders and 
Lowlanders among the wooded rocks behind 
the house on School Street, Roxbury. 

William sometimes said, as he grew older, 
that there was no circumstance in his life that 
he would wish changed. There was, however, 
one real drawback to the happiness of that 
home, — one stain upon the glory of the United 
States of America, to whose interests all were 
devoted: I cannot remember the time when 
slavery was not mentioned with indignation by 
that patriotic family and the guests who gath- 
ered round their hospitable board. Among 
these were Mrs. Putnam's brother, James Rus- 
sell Lowell; James Freeman Clarke; and many 
relatives of Colonel Robert G. Shaw. 



50 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

In 185 1 my uncle and his family went to 
Europe, but they never forgot the Important 
concerns of their native land. When William 
was in Nantes, in the west of France, he used 
to escort a newly arrived colored boy to their 
day school. Dr. Guepin, In whose family 
in Nantes William spent several months, after- 
ward described him In 1857 as a tall, handsome 
youth, modest and reserved In society, and firm 
and courageous In the practice of his duties. 
His dream was then to serve the interests of 
his country and become a historian. 

In 1858, after an absence of seven years, dur- 
ing which there were counted among his ac- 
quaintances the man of science, the collegian, 
the young officer, the workman, the common 
soldier, and the peasant, he returned with the 
family to the United States, with no regretful 
longing for what he had left In Europe. His 
love of country was as warm as if he had never 
been absent from it. He visited Lexington 
and Concord and found these and the streets of 
his native place as much classic ground as those 
of Rome. His young cousins, then in college, 
hailed him as a comrade; the hand of the me- 
chanic met in his a clasp as honest and as strong 
as his own. He had fair hair and hazel eyes, 
with bright color In his cheeks; he was full of 
fun. His mother wrote of him, "His parents 



WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM 51 

often pleased themselves with the thought that 
their vigorous and happy boy offered the type 
of Young America." 

Then came the election of Lincoln, and the 
war. The recruits tramped through the street 
singing "John Brown's Body." I remember 
my cousin Willie saying to me soon after Sum- 
ter had been fired upon: "People say this war 
will not last more than six months! It will go 
on for nearer six years; but when it is over 
slavery will have been abolished." His mother 
wrote, "The attainment of his majority was 
marked by his entrance into the service of his 
country." 

On July 21, 1 86 1, William received from 
Governor Andrew his commission as Second 
Lieutenant in the Twentieth Regiment, 
M.V.M., at the same time with his cousin 
James Jackson Lowell. Colonel William Ray- 
mond Lee had already said of him, "He will 
make a fine officer; there is character in all he 
does." 

On the 4th of September, Lowell Putnam left 
Camp Massasoit, with his regiment, for the 
South. As the southward-bound train pulled 
out from the station William stood on the plat- 
form waving us good-bye. In less than seven 
weeks from that time his earthly career was 
closed. 



52 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

One of his men told William's mother that 
at the Battle of Ball's Bluff "Lieutenant Put- 
nam was standing among all the bullets falling, 
with his arms folded, shouting to his men just 
as calm as ever." 

One of his brother officers wrote, ''The men 
were so accustomed to obeying him that I could 
hardly persuade them to help after he had told 
them to leave him and help some one else be- 
cause he was mortally wounded; and Henry 
Howard Sturgis carried him on his back to the 
boat and to the island." William's mother, 
in a short memoir written soon after his death, 
wrote words which will find an echo in many 
another mother's heart: "And yet how many 
and what hopes passed with that passing breath; 
those that his young breast had cherished, silent 
and resolute; those which admiring comrades 
had set in him, generous and cheerful; those 
that hearts already bereaved had treasured for 
him, trembling and prayerful. 

"If we may ask his country to hold him in 
her memory ... it must be not only because 
he laid down for her an almost untasted exist- 
ence, but because he gave up with it projects 
of great and noble accomplishment." 

Pierson took his sword, hoping to return it to 
Mrs. Putnam, but the cavalry party who cap- 
tured them demanded and retained it. It was 



WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM 53 

in front of Petersburg that "that loyal sword 
came again into loyal keeping," the trophy of 
a Union volunteer who had supposed it to be 
a rebel sword. In May, 1890, it was brought 
safely home to William's mother. 



54 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6l 



CABOT JACKSON RUSSEL 

Sergeant Forty-fourth M.V. Infantry, Sep- 
tember 12, 1862. First Lieutenant Fifty- 
fourth M.V., March 23, 1863. Captain, May 
II, 1863. Killed at Fort Wagner, South Caro- 
lina, July 18, 1863. 

Cabot Jackson Russel was born in New York, 
July 21, 1844. During his childish years his pas- 
sion was for playing knight-errant and wounded 
soldier. Over the boy's bed hung the portrait 
of John Brown of Osawatomie. Cabot Russel 
entered Harvard College in 1861, but was sus- 
pended for inattention to his studies, which he 
later greatly regretted. In June, 1862, on a 
journey to the West, after the war had begun, 
he wrote his father: "I don't know about Jim 
or Charley [Lowell]. If anything has happened 
to either one of them I shall want to enlist." 
And when he heard of Lieutenant James Low- 
ell's death he wrote, ''Now I shall certainly go," 
and turned back to his home in New York. 
His age v/as just eighteen. He was appointed 
to a vacant sergeantship in the Forty-fourth 
Massachusetts Regiment, which was then re- 
cruiting under Colonel F. L. Lee. His com- 




CABOT JACKSON RUSSEL 



CABOT JACKSON RUSSEL 55 

manding officers highly commended his pluck, 
endurance, and fidelity to duty. November i 
he wrote, "I hope I and the regiment will be- 
have well in to-morrow's fight." 

On March 4, 1863, Cabot Russel appeared in 
Boston to accept a second lieutenancy under 
Colonel Robert G. Shaw in the Fifty-fourth 
(colored) Regiment. He was soon given the 
command of Company H and became noted for 
careful drill and discipline. July 17, off Morris 
Island, he described an engagement in which 
they had to retreat and suffered heavy loss. 
"My men did nobly." Adjutant James wrote, 
"Capt. Russel took part in the sharp skirmish 
on James Island (July 16), where his company 
bore the brunt of the battle and he showed dis- 
tinguished ability and courage." On the night 
of the 17th, orders were received to join Gen- 
eral Strong's Brigade. On the i8th the Fifty- 
fourth Regiment reported for duty to Brigadier- 
General Strong, and was placed by him at the 
head of an assaulting column then forming on 
the beach in front of Fort Wagner, which was 
the objective point of attack. Company H 
held the left of the second line of the regiment, 
which position was the most dangerous, on 
account of its proximity to the flanking fire of 
James Island. At dusk the column was or- 
dered forward, and Russel, with an ardor and 



56 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

devotion that never wavered, threw himself 
upon his death. When last seen by those who 
survived, he was lying mortally wounded on the 
ground, and across him the body of his dear 
friend Captain William H. Simpkins, his com- 
rade-in-arms and in death. 

Adjutant James wrote of him, ''From tem- 
perament and principle he was an enthusiast 
for freedom. . . . His sympathies grew with the 
enforcement of the negroes' rights. He would 
gladly have devoted his life, if it had been pro- 
tracted, to this cause. As it was, he gave it up 
in its very flower with a zeal, a courage, a dis- 
interestedness unsurpassed even in the annals 
of the war. To his soldiers he said, 'Do not 
touch me; move on, men! follow your colors.' " 




^^ 



&*».:■ 




SAMUEL STORROW 



SAMUEL STORROW^ 57 



SAMUEL STORROW 

Corporal Forty-fourth Alassachusetts \'ol- 
unteer Infantry, September 20, 1862-Jiine 18, 
1863. First Lieutenant Second Massachusetts 
Volunteer Infantry, September 22, 1864. Killed 
at Ayerysborough (Black Creek), North Caro- 
lina, March 16, 1865. 

Samuel Storrow \yas born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, July 24, 1843. From his earliest 
years he showed great quickness of apprehen- 
sion and readiness to apply practically ^yhat- 
eyer he acquired. As he grew older he dis- 
played much manliness of character and a 
perfect independence of judgment. He en- 
tered college in i860, at the age of seventeen. 
When the war broke out the next spring he felt 
a strong desire to join the army, and began to 
study military works to fit himself for what- 
ever might be required of him. In the spring 
of 1862, on account of his eyes, he obtained 
leave of absence and sailed for Fayal, the 
Azores. On his return he found that his father 
was absent in Europe; that his brother Charles 
had just entered the army with a commission 
of captain in the Forty-fourth Massachusetts, 



58 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

then being filled up for immediate service. 
Before Sam could hear from his father, his 
mother, with unflinching loyalty, assumed the 
responsibility for his enlistment, and he was 
mustered in as Corporal in Company H, Sep- 
tember 20, 1862. On October 12th he wrote 
his father: "It seems to me the part of a cow- 
ard to stay at home and allow others to fight 
my battles and incur dangers for me. Assure 
mother fully of your approval of the course she 
has taken. Everybody thinks she has acted 
nobly." 

The Forty-fourth was immediately ordered 
to North Carolina, and remained there during 
its whole term of service. In December, 1862, 
at the moment of the advance on Kingston, 
Storrow wrote, "As I saw the glorious Stars and 
Stripes of the Tenth Connecticut way ahead, 
dancing in the sunlight, I felt that it would be 
glorious to die under that flag; how easy it 
would be to uphold it with one's life." 

In June, 1863, the Forty-fourth was mustered 
out, and Storrow returned to college, graduat- 
ing with his class, and applied for a commission 
in the Second Massachusetts, and on Septem- 
ber 22, 1864, upon nomination of General Cogs- 
well and the strong recommendation of Colonel 
Francis L. Lee of the Forty-fourth, he received 
his commission as First Lieutenant in the Sec- 



SAMUEL STORROW 59 

ond Massachusetts and set off for Atlanta, 
Georgia, where his regiment was then stationed. 

The Second Massachusetts Regiment formed 
part of the Twentieth Army Corps in the left 
wing of Sherman's army which left about the 
middle of November for its "march to the sea." 
Lieutenant Storrow, in his captain's absence, 
commanded his company through the whole 
campaign, until after the fall of Savannah. 
Storrow wrote an exceedingly graphic descrip- 
tion of the way Sherman's army reduced the 
destruction of railways almost to a branch of 
scientific engineering. 

March 12, 1865, when two miles from Fay- 
etteville, North Carolina, Storrow wrote home: 
"First of all, everybody I know of is well and 
hearty, and best and heartiest of all am I." 
"This campaign has been in every respect 
harder than the last." "The four corps of our 
army are concentrated here, all on the same 
day, without jostling or delay." 

At Savannah, Lieutenant Storrow was de- 
tailed for staff duty on application of the regi- 
mental commander who had just been brevetted 
as Brigadier-General. The order was dated 
January 16, 1865, and Storrow acted as aide to 
General Cogswell during the march across 
North Carolina and until his career ended. 

In a letter dated March 24, 1865, to Hon. 



6o MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 

Charles S. Storrow, General Cogswell informed 
him of the death of his son, mentioning him as 
*' personal aide to myself." The letter goes on 
to say: "Mr. Storrow died of wounds received 
in action March i6, 1865, about twenty miles 
from Fayetteville, North Carolina, while car- 
rying an order to the left of the brigade. . . . 
He died in about fifteen or twenty minutes 
afterwards. . . . He was not insensible when 
first wounded, and he had the coolness and self- 
possession to send word to me that he was 
wounded, that he had carried out my instruc- 
tions, and also sent me the information I had 
wished for. He was a brave, faithful, and most 
promising young officer. . . . He joined my 
regiment in October. I was pleased with him 
at once and can say that in all my experience I 
never saw a new and young officer take hold of 
his work so well. In my own mind I selected 
him at once for the place I afterwards asked 
him to accept. He became eminently popular 
in this brigade; and not until after I had lost 
him did I fully realize of how much actual ser- 
vice he was to myself and my command. 

"William Cogswell 
'^ Brevet Brigadier-General U.S. Volunteers.'''^ 

Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Morse, (Acting) 
Colonel of the Massachusetts Second Regiment, 



SAMUEL STORROW 6l 

said of Lieutenant Storrow, "I watched him 
ride across the field with his earnest eager look 
when he was carrying that last message for the 
General, just before he was wounded; he was 
a fine spirited young fellow, and his loss was 
greatly felt by those who had been associated 
with him during his short term of service." 



62 MEMOIRS OF THE WAR OF '6 1 



SUMNER PAINE 

Second Lieutenant Twentieth M.V. Infantry, 
May, 1863. Killed at Gettysburg, Pennsyl- 
vania, July 3, 1863, after only two months in 
the service of his country. 

Sumner Paine was born May 10, 1845. At 
eleven years of age he went with his two 
brothers through most of the passes of Central 
Switzerland, climbing the highest mountains 
without the least fatigue. He returned home 
in 1858, and graduated with his class from the 
Latin School, entering Harvard College in 
July, 1 86 1. 

Sumner entered the army in May, 1863, as 
Second Lieutenant, Twentieth Massachusetts 
Volunteer Militia. When just eighteen he 
reached the railway at Fredericksburg. The 
Battle of Chancellorsville took place the next 
day. His cousin, Captain O. W. Holmes, was 
very soon wounded, and on Friday, July 3, 
Sumner took the command of his company, 
which he held through that terrible day. 
Then came the forced marches to Gettysburg. 
Wednesday and Thursday had left the fortunes 
of war trembling in the balance. Friday, the 




SUMNER PAINE 



SUMNER PAINE 63 

Second Corps under Hancock held the left 
centre, the key to our position. Here General 
Lee ordered Pickett's Division, veteran troops, 
to make their last terrible assault. Not a shot 
was fired by the Twentieth until the enemy was 
near and Lieutenant Macy gave the order. 
Then began the fire, quick and deadly. Ten 
or twenty rods to our right the weight of the 
enemy crushed through our line, passing it up 
a little hill. This was the crisis of the day, if 
not the turning-point of the war. Generals 
Hancock and Gibbons had both been wounded. 
Macy received orders to lead the Twentieth 
against the enemy, gave orders to Abbott and 
to his Adjutant, but before they were repeated 
to any one else both were shot down. Other 
troops came up. It was in the thickest of the 
fight, in front of his men, that Lieutenant Paine 
was struck by a ball which broke his leg. Fall- 
ing on his knee he waved his sword and urged 
on his men, and was at that moment struck by 
a shell which caused his instant death. His 
last words were, "Isn't this glorious.^" 

His body was found close to a fence where 
the rebels made their last desperate stand. 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION 65 



SOURCES OF INFORMATION IN COMPILING 
THIS VOLUME 

"Life of Governor John A. Andrew," by Henry G. Pearson, 

1904. 
"Charles Russell Lowell, Life and Letters," by E. W. 

Emerson, 1907. 
"Harvard Memorial Biographies," 1867. 
"Addresses Delivered by Henry L. Higginson, 1890-97." 
"Addresses of Henry Lee," by G. F. Putnam, edited by 

Frank Moore, 1862. 
"Memoir of William Lowell Putnam," by Mrs. Mary 

Lowell Putnam, 1862-63. 
"The Return of the Sword," by Mrs. Mary Lowell Put- 
nam, 1897. 
"Memoir of James Jackson," by James Jackson Putnam, 

1905. 
"The Boston Symphony Orchestra," by M. A. DeWolfe 

Howe, 1914. 
"Memorise Positum," by James Russell Lowell, 1863. 
"H. S. Russell," by John T. Morse, Jr., Harvard Graduates' 

Magazine, 1905. 
"Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, 

by his son, Vincent Y. Bowditch," 1902. 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852. 
"Letters written during the Civil War," by Charles F. 

Morse, 1865. 



66 SOURCES OF INFORMATION 

"Field, Camp, Hospital and Prison in the Civil War," by 

Charles A. Humphreys, 1918. 
"The Journal of Negro History," by Carter G. Woodson, 

1919. 
"Modern Industrialism and the Negroes of the United 

States," by Archibald H. Grimke, 1908. 
"The Negro," by W. E. B. Dubois, 1915. 
"Negro Year Book," Tuskegee Institute Press. 
Reports of Fiske University. 

"Reminiscences," by E. C. Putnam, July 8, 1915. 
Autobiography of Charles Francis Adams. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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